Information released by a Pfizer employee indicates that top executives at the giant drug-maker have been trying to soft-pedal the connection between its corona vaccine and tissue that is derived for aborted babies, according to documents released by the watchdog group Project Veritas.
Melissa Strickler, who described herself in a Project Veritas video as an employee at the company’s plant in McPherson, Kansas, came forward with the information.
In the documentation published by Project Veritas, Philip Dormitzer, Pfizer’s chief scientific officer, wrote that aborted fetal tissue was used in connection with vaccine development.
However, he urged in an email that the connection not be baldly stated to the public.
“HEK293T cells, used for the IVE assay, are ultimately derived from an aborted fetus,” Dormitzer wrote. “On the other hand, the Vatican doctrinal committee has confirmed that they consider it acceptable for Pro-Life believers to be immunized. Pfizer’s official statement couches the answer well and is what should be provided in response to an outside inquiry.”
In an interview, Strickler told Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe that the initials at the beginning of that email stand for “human embryo kidney cells” and the “293” refers to an experiment number.
Vanessa Gelman, Pfizer’s senior director of worldwide research, wrote that the company wanted to be sure the issue was not raised in public.
“From the perspective of corporate affairs, we want to avoid having the information on fetal cells floating out there,” Gelman wrote.
“We believe that the risk of communicating this right now outweighs any potential benefit we could see, particularly with general members of the public who may take this information and use it in ways we may not want out there. We have not received any questions from policymakers or media on this issue in the last few weeks, so we want to avoid raising this if possible,” she wrote.
Gelman noted that Pfizer wanted certain information kept hidden.
“We have been trying as much as possible to not mention the fetal cell lines,” she wrote.
“One or more cell lines with an origin that can be traced back to human fetal tissue has been used in laboratory tests associated with the vaccine program,” she wrote
Strickler said it was unclear what the ultimate connection is between the vaccine now being used and aborted fetal tissue.
“They’re being so deceptive in their emails, it’s almost like it is in the final vaccine. It just made me not trust it,” she said.
Strickler said she felt no one else would listen.
“I have no one else to turn to when my own company won’t be honest with me. What I was told to do was to trust Project Veritas and to go with you guys by lawmakers, by lawyers,” she said.
Stcrickler told O’Keefe she took a “mental health leave of absence” from Pfizer before going public because “I was sickened and traumatized from a lot of the things that I realized were going on.”
She said the company wants to keep the issue of the use of tissue from aborted fetuses quiet because it could spur an increase in those seeking religious exemptions to vaccine mandates.
Earlier this year, in a joint statement issued on the website of the U.S. conference of Catholic Bishops., Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, chairman of conference’s Committee on Doctrine, and Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, chairman of the conference’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said there were ethical questions about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine but cleared Pfizer as far as actual production of its vaccine.
“The approval of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in the United States again raises questions about the moral permissibility of using vaccines developed, tested, and/or produced with the help of abortion-derived cell lines,” the statement said.
“Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines raised concerns because an abortion-derived cell line was used for testing them, but not in their production. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, however, was developed, tested and is produced with abortion-derived cell lines raising additional moral concerns.
“The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has judged that ‘when ethically irreproachable Covid-19 vaccines are not available … it is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process,’” they wrote.
Strickler, who is still a Pfizer employee, told O’Keefe she was comfortable making a public stand.
“I have faith that I’ll be protected, or whatever the outcome is is what it’s supposed to be,” she said.